The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its initial Florida citrus crop forecast for the upcoming 2011/12 season, with early estimates suggesting the state will produce 147m boxes of oranges, up 5 per cent on last year.
'This number is not a surprise. We've had good rain over the summer and a large bloom in the spring so this is pretty close to what we expected,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. 'I've been in groves across the state and I can tell you this season Florida will once again produce the finest citrus in the world.
'At this size, with our inventories, we would hope that the market will continue to put upward pressure on grower returns,' Sparks added.
The USDA predicted that Florida will produce some 20.1m boxes of grapefruit this season, up slightly on the 19.75m boxes harvested in 2010/11.
Early and mid-season citrus varieties are projected to come in at 74m boxes, with Valencias projected to total 73m boxes.
For Florida specialty fruit, meanwhile, the USDA predicts 1.1m boxes of tangelos and 4.7m boxes of tangerines.
To usher in the new season, Florida Citrus Mutual hosted a crop estimate breakfast at Ray-Bob Groves in Alturas, with some 70 growers attending as well as industry officials, elected representatives, governor Rick Scott and agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam.
'What a great event we had to kick off the new season,' Sparks said. 'We got some quality time with the Governor in a grove. He was extremely responsive to our issues and promised to keep the lines of communication open between the industry and his office.'
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